Low carb eating and endurance sports.

A while ago I attended a Sani2C social evening hosted by BOE in Cape Town. One of the guest speakers were Prof Tim Noakes (author of the famed Lore of running and instigator of the recent low Carb debate in sporting circles). In 1 hour I had my dietary belief system re-aligned. The day after the Argus I bought the latest version of Atkins Diet (New Atkins for a new you) and started reading. If I was going to cut out the beloved carbs from my Diet, I needed to understand why. What struck me very early on is how honest the author was about the whole concept and later on I was impressed with the accurate description about how you end up feeling while being on the eating plan. I also liked the manner in which everything was explained.

6 weeks and 2 days into the Atkins programme I have shrunk from 103kg to 90.5kg and with no signs of slowing down. Since starting with the Atkins plan there have been numerous articles in weekly magazines, interviews on Carte Blanche and healthy debate about the effects of a low carb diet and endurance sports. My experience so far is that it works very well for me. Admittedly my longest training rides are only about 4 hours long. Before I would eat anything that moved after a long ride. Now I am very comfortable to eat at my normal meal times and to eat regular portions. I suspect that herein the secret lies. Before I felt hungry all the time while training hard, now I feel energized and meals give me a distinct feeling of rejuvenation, rather than feeling bloated and tired after eating.

Racing at Sani2C will test my new eating plan and I am curious to see what effect the slightly longer (and much harder) days will have in conjunction with my eating plan.

For those interested: My current eating plan consists of:
Breakfast
- 150g beef mince with 25g chopped onion and 25g chopped peppers
     or
- 2 scrambled eggs with 4 rashers of bacon
- Coffee with full cream milk (no sugar / sweetener)

Snack
- 1/2 avocado with salt and about 18g cream cheese (not combined with the avo!)
    or
- Droe wors (about 50g)

Lunch
- 150g chicken breast tossed in Nando's sauce (its a good low carb sauce if you like spicey foods), 50g lettuce, 50g tomatoes, 50g cucumber
    or
- 150g beef strips, 50g lettuce, 50g tomato, 50g cucumber with Ina Paarman Cesar dressing (also a nice low carb dressing to use)

Snack
- USN Pure Protein IGF 1 (low carb) shake

Dinner
- 200g Lamb chops with 100g grilled cauliflower/Broccoli covered with cheddar cheese and cream
    or
- 200g Grilled Hake fillet with garlic butter and 80g fine green beans steamed and dressed with olive oil and herbs
    or
- 250g Rump steak (you can leave the fat on) rubbed in olive oil, coriander and pepper corns with 100g portabella mushrooms with garlic and cheese (perfect for the braai)

My nutrition during training / racing:
- Race drink similar to USN Cyto Power (I get a supplement from T Nutrients that has similar ingredients, but tastes better to me) - about 1 bottle in 2 hours, alternating with a bottle of clean water
- USN Pure Protein Bar alternating with Droe wors (about 20g portions) every hour.